Shared Marketing Support

HTTPS and SSL Certificates | What you Need to know

Overview – What is an SSL Certificate?

Put simply, having an SSL certificate installed on your site ensures that all the information sent to and from, or submitted to the site, is encrypted and secure. This protects the information and privacy of both the website user and site owner. Additionally, SSL Certificates prevent potentially sensitive data from being intercepted by malicious people or scripts.

In the past, the use of SSL Certificates was almost exclusively found on eCommerce stores. Today having an SSL Certificate installed on your website and serving all your pages with HTTPS is quickly becoming the standard. All major search engines, especially Google, are aggressively encouraging all website owners to make the transition from HTTP to HTTPS.

All websites, sooner or later, will need to make the switch to HTTPS.

What do I need to know about installing an
SSL Certificate / switching to HTTPS?

It is important to note that search engines (such as Google) essentially treat websites using HTTPS as a separate website than their HTTP version.

Because of this, there are important tasks that need to be completed done in addition to installing the SSL certificate to ensure the transition to HTTPS is as smooth as possible.

These tasks include, but are not limited to:

Updating all the links, scripts, images and assets on the site to the HTTPS versions

Setting up 301 redirects from the old HTTP pages to the new HTTPS versions

Rewriting hard-coded internal links

Updating your sitemap to reflect the new HTTPS URLs

Registering the HTTPS version in Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)

Resubmitting the sitemap for indexing

Monitoring for issues in the days following the switch

What are my Options?

Shared Marketing provides SSL certificate installation services starting at just $100.00 per year (this includes the additional tasks mentioned above).

Every website has different requirements and not all SSL certificates provide them same level of protection, so if you would like to make the switch to secure HTTPS, please contact us today and we will help you determine the right certificate for your needs and your budget.

If you have any queries or would like any further information on making the switch to HTTPS, please contact Shared Marketing today. Our friendly staff are happy to help!